Developing a House Style
Question: How do You organize a local / house style guide?
Answer: Any way you want to!
Question: That's not very helpful. Are some ways better than others?
Answer: Of course, that's true no matter what you are talking about!
Question:Well, can you at least give us any hints or suggestions?
Answer: Why didn't you say that that is what you wanted. The following are some suggestions and observations.
The ultimate goal: Communication!
There may be more than one correct way to state something. The “right” way might depend on the audience, the type of document, or the subject matter. This suggests that you might need more than one style guide! For example, your development people may insist on “fundraising” whereas others in your office want it to be “fund-raising.”
Clear and effective communication is your goal. “As you ramble on through life, brother, whatever be your goal, keep your eye upon the doughnut and not upon the hole.”
Conclusion #1: There is nothing wrong with multiple house styles, especially if the media or audiences are reasonably different.
A style guide is seldom a static document
The English language is a living entity. We regularly use words which our grandparents had never heard. We often say things in a way which earlier generations considered ungrammatical or slang.
The conclusion from these remarks seem to suggest that a local style guide should be
available on the computer both for reference and for ease in updating.
A further suggestion is that anything which is placed in the local style guide and which overrides the “standard” guide should be somehow annotated as to when it was included, and why. For example, “the president of the school never wants to be referred to as Father (or Fr.) but always as Reverend (or Rev.)” Annotating the time, date, and reason for a particular style issue also allows one to realize that it might no longer be an issue, needs revision, or was due to a peculiar combination of circumstances which no longer hold.
Conclusion #2: Your local style guide should be (a) available online, so that someone who is editing on the computer can switch to it, and (b) in a form which can be edited as time goes on.
Think how people will want to use the document
Consider the following scenario. You have just hired Ms. Janice Procter. She is editing an article about the beliefs of girls between the ages of 13 and 19. She comes across the phrase ‘teen-aged women’ in an article to be published. Later in the same article there is a reference to ‘girl teenagers.” She pauses and wonders whether there is local guideline about such a phrases. Where does she look? Under ‘hyphens’? Under “sex/gender terms”? Under “t”?
Most real style guides seem to have an alphabetic section which list entries which are either problematic, commonly raise questions, or ambiguous.
Conclusion #3: Include an A-to-Z list of preferences, choices, and avoidances.
What about general practices?
Often we won’t get stuck on particulars, but wonder whether there is an over-arching principle about some of the following issues:
• titles, degrees, sub-units (departments, programs, organizational components)
• God- and church-related terms
• numbers versus numerals, fractions, dates, times
• plurals, possessives, and contractions
Conclusion #4: there should also be more general sections devoted to one or more of the above with guiding principles (such as references back to the primary or secondary references) as well as specific examples and exceptions.
If you find that there are arguments, disagreements, feuds, or minor wars erupting about how something should be formatted, punctuated, written, or phrased – you definitely need a local style guide.
We present here is a totally fictitious and incomplete example of parts of the local style guide for Pignatelli Prep. Please do not automatically adopt it without reading through it. The author of this note has included some examples which he himself would not adopt!
Pignatelli Prep Publications Office
Primary Style Guide: Associated Press Stylebook, 2004
Secondary Style Guides: Pignatelli Prep Publication Guidelines, 1956
Primary Dictionary: Webster’s Collegiate, 11th edition
Some items are listed below simply to reinforce current style practices.
A-B-C |
|
use this: anti- compounds (generally closed e.g. antihistamine) anti-Semitic anti-Catholic co-institutional co-worker cooperate |
not this: coinstitutional coworker co-operate |
Abbreviations and Acronyms |
|
use this: am (small caps) BC (small caps) Fr St. Louis (the city) Saint Louis (the university) US SJ, OSB, OFMCap (no periods in religious order designations) |
not this: A.M. AM am B.C., B.C.E., BCE Fr. Father (except in Father General) Saint Louis St Louis U.S. S.J., O.S.B., OFMCap. |
Capitalization |
|
use this: All URLs in lower case www.somewhere.com/... |
not this: Mixed capitals (note that in HTML there might be a difference between the visual and the code behind it) |
D-E-F-G-H |
|
use this: e-business e-commerce |
not this: ebusiness ecommerce |
Dates |
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use this: July 4 July 4, 2002, the 1960s |
not this: July 04 July 4 2002 4 July 2002 4 July 02 the 1960's |
I-J-K-L |
|
use this: inquire jail |
not this: enquire gaol (unless you are in England!) |
M-N |
|
|
|
Numbers |
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use this: Spell out numbers less than 100 Insert commas: 1,456 Phone numbers: (555) 1213-4567 1 (800) 654-3210 |
not this: 1456 555/123-4567 or 555.123.4568 800.654.3210 |
O-P |
|
use this: online PCs proof-read |
not this: on-line PC’s proofread |
Punctuation |
|
Use the serial comma (before last item preceding ‘and’ or ‘or’ in a series of 3 or more items unless it leads to confusion |
|
Q-R-S-T |
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use this: Quran |
not this: Koran (unless quoting) |
Religious Terms |
|
use this: Mass |
not this: mass (unless generic) |
U-V-W-X-Y-Z |
|
use this: washout (Webster 11th) Web site Two words, Web capitalized webmaster webcast workload word processor |
not this: wash out website Website web master web cast work load word-processor |
Dick VandeVelde, SJ
Loyola University of Chicago
Company Magazine
Updated: July 21, 2005